There are many kinds of automobile or vehicle window shades or cover, such as rolling sheets, venetian blinds, pleated panels, and folding fans. They are made of cardboard, flexible plastic sheet, or other suitable materials. They are used inside or outside of cars. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,848,825 discloses a windshield cover to be used outside of cars. The cover is made of semi-rigid corrugated cardboard with waterproof coatings. U.S. Pat. No. 5,035,460 shows a flexible windshield cover for outside use. A shade used outside of a car is usually attached to the car by means of ropes, belts or extended portions thereof being clamped by the doors, such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,035,460; 4,848,825; 4,597,608; 4,635,993; and 2,646,118.
For inside use, a shade is usually in the forms of venetian blinds, plural collapsible and pleated panels, folding fans, or flexible sheet, for instance, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,877,074; 4,202, 396; 4,671,334; 4,947,920; 4,886,104; 5,004,285; 4,109, 957; and 4,861,090. A shade used inside of a car usually has certain cutout portions for accomplishing the rear-view mirror and the profile of the windshield, such as the one in U.S. Pat. No. 4,202,396; 4,947,920; and 4,877,074.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,046,543 and 5,267,599 teach respectively alternative applications of the shade as poster or sunbathing mat. The shade used as poster has hand holding cutouts and a cutout for rear-view mirror. The rear-view mirror cutout substantially destroys the integrity of the poster. The shade used as sunbathing mat includes a plurality of layers of flexible sheets and rigid layers disposed therein. Such a laminated structure has relatively high manufacturing cost and is not durable.
For folding panels, the cardboard is usually preferred material. It can be folded by providing v-shaped or U-shaped grooves between panels because the cardboard is semi-rigid, e.g. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,878,708 and 4,671,334. U.S. Pat. No. 4,878,074 discloses a hinge arrangement of a series of perforations for folding semi-rigid cardboard. It also discusses other hinge arrangements, such as, flexible connecting strips and yieldable materials being adhered or stapled to the panels. It is generally recognized that the rigid panels can only be connected by hinge arrangement of flexible and yieldable materials. Thus, the manufacture cost is relatively high because of the complicated hinge structures.
The shades in the prior art have respectively disadvantages. Cardboard shades are of low manufacturing cost, but easy to be torn and not waterproof. A plurality of collapsible and pleated panels are generally used inside of cars. They may have better heat insulating effect, but have higher manufacturing cost. Rigid folding panels cannot be well fitted inside the car, nor be easily folded with simple connecting structure.